Freedom is Not Just About Having Wings
by akurosa
Summary: Nami asks Luffy why he hadn't fought back. Luffy's answer is surprisingly simple. No pairings. Only alot of Zoro and Luffy nakamaship.


_Now this isn't intended to be OC, but it may sound so to English onepiece readers. I've only read One Piece in Korean or/and Japanese and so I have absolutely no idea how the characters talk in the English translation. Feel free to correct me if I've gotten anything(probably a lot) wrong. Usual Disclaimers apply, I own nothing! This is set after Luffy and Zoro get beaten up at that pub in that weird town where they first meet Black Beard(God I hate him). _

"Why!"

At the sharp question, the Straw Hat pirate looks up to see what it is that has irritated his Navigator. Nami's voice is at least two pitches higher than usual and her pupils are dilated, all a sure sign of distress. It's strange, because-Luffy looks to his left and then to his right-there isn't anybody in the general direction Nami's glaring at.

Except himself of course.

"YOU Luffy. YOU!" Nami barely restrains from wacking the boy in the head and instead, pokes him with a force as if she is trying to insert her fury into the pirate through her finger. However, the younger teen looks at her with genuine confusion reflecting from the large eyes and Nami can almost hear her blood boiling.

"Why are you angry Nami?" Luffy frowns. "We kept our promise. We didn't fight."

"Exactly the problem," Nami knows she sounds like a pit bull but can't stop. It is partly because she isn't going to be able to get any sleep is she doesn't get this out of her system by tonight. It's also because anger is a convenient way to ignore the childish flare of jealousy that occurs whenever Luffy includes the swordsman in the conversation as if he's standing right beside Luffy, even when he isn't. It wouldn't be so annoying if it hadn't been a habit only concerning the swordsman. "You could have beaten the crap out of them with one fist! Zoro could have beaten the crap out of him with his eyes closed! But for some absolutely insane reason, you decide NOT to fight!"

Nami could go on for hours and hours asking questions she knows she'll never get answers she could ever relate to, but she has to ask. And so she continues on and on, not stopping to take the drink Sanji is offering or when Chopper who comes to tidy Luffy up towers behind his Captain's shoulder the entire time shaking in fear from the wrath that wasn't even aimed at the him but rather who he's hiding behind.

And then between shouts, she realizes Luffy is trying to answer her questions.

"Excuse me?" Nami asks incredulously, and mostly rhetorically because she has heard what Luffy just said and is only asking to give herself time to decide whether she should strangle the raven head boy for giving her such a irrelevant answer or not. However Luffy like always is completely oblivious to her internal turmoil that is threatening to become external in a very dangerous way, and repeats his answer, grinning the entire time. Nami throws her hands in the air as she shouts. "What the hell does that have to do with ANYTHING!"

"Everything of course Nami!" Luffy pats Nami's shoulder in a very reassuring way as if Nami's should be pitied for not knowing his completely _unreasonable_ reasoning, before bounding away, in search of meat.

"Robin Ne-chaaaaaan!" Nami sinks into the seat beside the Demon Fruit User who closes the book she's been reading.

"How did the conversation go?" Robin asks although from the looks of it, the output is quite obvious; nowhere. "Thank you Cook-san."

"Thanks Sanji-kun," Nami absentmindedly receives the strawberry milkshake Sanji offers her. "It doesn't make any sense. What the hell does who he went with have to do with anything? Robin ne-chan, what do you think would have happened if it were just me and Luffy that had went into the town?"

Robin smiles at this question because she knows where it is coming from, and where it is heading.

"I suppose," Robin answers carefully. "That Luffy would have still refused to fight. Our Captain can be very persistent when he wants to be."

"What if Sanji-kun had been there?"

"Nami-Swan!" Sanji who had been on his way back to the kitchen flies to the deck at his name. "I would never let some dumbass bastards even look at you if a disrespectful way! I would gladly kick their asses and feed their filthy remains to the sharks at sea! I would most enthusiastically beat the crap out of them and prove you my undying love-"

"I'm sure you would Sanji-kun," Nami sighs as she cuts of the ramble. She realizes that if Sanji-kun had been at the pub things would have turned far more vicious far more quickly. "Luffy probably would have had to rip you off those guys.."

"Probably," Robin agrees.

"If it had been Usoppe?" Nami looks almost hopeful.

"I doubt Ussope would have sat back and watched Luffy take it Nami San," Sanji answers slowly as he bites on the cigarette he doesn't light as he is in the presence of his precious ladies. "Usoppe's a man when it comes to his friends, and he knows when to stand his ground and fight."

"Then what about Chopper? Never mind, that's a stupid question," Nami stares at the reindeer who is fishing with Usoppe, no doubt listening to the sniper's stories. "Luffy would never let anybody harm Chopper."

"I take it as Doctor-san has childhood wounds when it comes to bullying?" Robin takes a sip of her drink. "Sencho-san seems to be particularly protective of him in that aspect. However, regardless of whoever it was at the bar, I believe that Sencho-san would do whatever he deemed necessary to protect his crew and never intentionally put us in immediate danger."

"He's like that Nami-san," Sanji shrugs as he watches Luffy drag out half a dozen chicken legs Sanji has left on the table for Luffy's snack. "Trying to protect all of us."

Nami who had looking at the vast sky as she relayed the day's events finally sighs as she turns back to the ship.

"Not all the time," She murmurs softly as she follows Sanji's gaze and watched Luffy poke a sleeping Zoro awake. "At least, not all of us."

There was one man-just one- who Luffy preferred to stand beside, rather than keep behind. There was one man Luffy chose to bear the pain with, rather than shield the pain from. The one man Luffy _could_, but didn't_ have to _protect.

Nami realizes that while Luffy loves them enough make sure they never get hurt, he trusts Zoro enough, to hurt together. And the orange headed Navigator understands that because Zoro is the one person Luffy is willing to share the burden of his own actions, Luffy was free to_ refuse _to fight.

"That's so not fair," Nami sinks back into her chair as she complains, but nobody is fooled; she's smiling.

The trio watches their Captain offer his First Mate a chicken leg. The swordsman is like always irritated by the awakening, but like always, moves his katanas to his other side to give his Captain space to sit down and snack. The straw hat pirate is, like always, pouting about the insufficient meat, but like always, never minds sharing the scarce meat he has with his First Mate.

Nami can't help but appreciate the simplicity of Luffy's answer, the truth ringing loud and clear.

_Because there was Zoro._


End file.
